


The christmas that was like no other

by Pearlislove



Category: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs
Genre: F/M, Normal!AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-16
Updated: 2016-12-16
Packaged: 2018-09-09 00:41:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8869138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearlislove/pseuds/Pearlislove
Summary: The Crazy but Normal Family AU noone asked for. Jacob has been dating his girlfriend Emma for close to two years now, and the last summer he decided to introduce her to his family. Roughly half a year later, as Christmas rolls aorund, he is asking for Emma to repay the favour and introduce him to her family.But is he really ready to face Emma's big, crazy family? Does he really know what he signed up for? Read and find out!





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [plengpoonyapa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/plengpoonyapa/gifts).



> The fanfic no one asked for but someone had to write.

“Emma?” Jake asked distractedly, not even glancing down at his girlfriend as he swiped with his thumb on the screen of his phone, exchanging the picture from said girlfriend's birthday for a holiday picture of their trip to his family home in Florida the summer before.

 

“Yes dear?” Emma wasn’t really paying attention, either, lying flat on her stomach on the carpet and writing down a few answers to her English literature quiz the coming week. In her notebook for mathematics. She had lost her general notebook a few days prior and was yet to get a new one, writing down what needed to be remembered wherever she found the space. She’d regret it when exams came, she was sure, but for now she didn’t particularly care.

 

“When will I get to meet your family?” Jake tried to keep his neutral tone, swiping on the screen and coming face to face with a selfie of him, Emma and one of his cousins, Danny. When they went on the vacation together last summer, Jake had taken the chance to introduce her to everyone in his family, including his two uncles and their five children. He didn’t dare look her in the face as he voiced the question which he’d had in his mind for so long, but if he had, he would have seen her shock.

 

The question came as an absolute surprise to Emma, and yet, she couldn’t help but feel as though she had seen it coming. Jake had brought her with him to his family home in Florida last June, and during their two week stay, Emma had come to meet practically everyone there was in his family. Since then, Emma had with nervous anticipation been expecting Jake to ask for the same in return, but since he never did, the question had long since been forgotten in her mind.

 

“Oh...um…” Quiz forgotten, Emma propped herself up on her elbows as she tried to think of a passable excuse. It wasn’t that she disliked her family, or were ashamed of them, but she really had hope he’d not ask. For him, two uncles and five cousins validated a large family, and she wasn't sure how he’d take meeting a group of people that was twice as big and still was just the closest family.“ I guess sometime when we're all together, or at least as many as possible?”

 

Jake glanced at her suspiciously, obviously not quite happy with the answer, and she quickly tried to seem occupied with writing down the plot to Hamlet in the margin of an old Math assignment. She can, however, tell that Jake is still looking at her, contemplating something before letting out an audible sigh. “You know, I did introduce you to all of my family last summer. And we’ve been going steady two years! Don't you think it’s time I get to meet your family? Like at least your mom and maybe some of your siblings?”

 

She hate it, the way he say it. He made it sound like a demand, something she had to do, and it tickles her fiery temperament. He didn’t even know that much about her family, just that she and the majority of her siblings were adopted and she only had a mom and no dad, so how could he berate her for being cautious? Preferably, she’d like to tell him to him to fuck off if he thought he could pressure her into arranging for him to meet her family, but she hold herself back, instead choosing a more tactical but not less angry reply.

 

“Of course, Jacob! Why don't I just introduce you to everyone? I mean as your girlfriend I have to do that don't I?” The moment she start talking, he know he’s stepped over some kind of line. She is using his full name, Jacob, which only his grandpa used, and her voice is dripping with sarcasm. Had he been anyone else she probably would have told him to fuck off already. “You can meet mom, and my seven siblings, and my sisters boyfriend, and my nine aunts, and my uncle and his girlfriend and their son...oh and why not my fifty or so cousins while we're at it?”

 

With that, Emma, slammed her book shut and stormed off, absolutely furious for reasons she could barely explain for herself, and sure as hell wasn’t going to defend infront of Jake.

 

\----

 

Watching her storm off after their short discussion, Jake wondered what he was to do. A part of him told him that he should be wondering what kind of relationship he was really involved in, considering she'd seen red as soon as he suggested being introduced to her family , but another part of his brain told him she was probably just scared. Introducing someone to your family can be sensitive, and considering that he knew she had been in a long, devoted relationship before dating him that had ended quite suddenly, he could understand her fear. 

 

Turning off his phone and sitting up, Jake decided that the best thing to do was probably to give her some time and then follow, her much more serene mood that always followed every flash of anger offering the chance to talk it out like civil people. 

 

Jake is about to go, figuring that he waited long enough, when he hears an unfamiliar ringtone starting to play, the sound of church bells echoing in the room until Jake finally spot Emma’s phone abandoned on top of her stack of homework she’d abandoned as well.

 

Carefully, he lift up the phone, the screen lighting up as he touched it. He squinted at the slightly blurry picture of a woman in her early fifties with glasses and a hawk-like gaze that appeared along with the set name of the contact, ‘Miss P/Mom’, before slowly hitting the green button and putting it to his ear.

 

He didn’t mean to intrude on her personal life, he really didn’t, but she’d told him so very little about her family and history despite all the time they’d been together, and he longed to learn more. With his earlier plans of getting to know of the things she never told him in ruins, he decided this was his second chance.

 

“Hello, Emma’s phone, Jacob speaking. How can I help you?” The well practiced sentence easily slide off his tongue, and for a moment it is absolutely silent on the other end, so to the point that he almost thought they’d hung up, before someone finally pick up. 

 

“Hello, uh, Yakob was it? Is Emma there? I’d like to speak to her please.” It’s not a soft and motherly female voice, the kind he would have imagined belonged to ‘Miss P/Mom’, but instead it's cold and strict, and by some weird coincidence he can't help noting she pronounced his full name with the same kind of Polish accent as his grandfather. 

 

“I’m afraid she left a minute ago. Can I take a message?” Jacob asked back awkwardly, suddenly feeling a bit scared, but forcing himself to sound relaxed.

 

“Certainly. Tell her that Miss Peregrine called, and that Sharon and the grannies are asking about Christmas plans, so I need her to call back so we can start planning something.”

 

“O-of course.” Even when terrified, her can feel his heart leaping with joy. He’d just had a conversation with her mother, or so her thought anyway, and he got to carry with him a very personal message that might just be his ticket to changing her mind so he could finally meeting her family. Then, in the end he took a big risk. “I’ll tell my girlfriend to call you.”

 

After Jake said the last part he couldn’t hang up fast enough, pushing the red button repeatedly until finally the contact photo was framed by red, indicating he hung up, and he finally breathed out.

 

He knew the last part had been a bad idea, and Emma was most likely going to kill him for it later, even if she had told her family about him it shouldn’t be a problem.

 

With a sigh, he grabbed Emma’s backpack from the nightstand, adding her phone, her unfinished homework, her jacket and a few pieces of clothing from his drawer that was hers to it before closing it and swinging it over his shoulder, heading out to find his girlfriend who’d most definitely be returning to her own dorm for the night.

 

\---- 

 

Emma felt like she was going to cry, no, breakdown sobbing. She had just stomped off out of her boyfriend's dorm without her jacket and backpack and homework in mid November and instead of continuing to feel pissed she’d succumbed to a big black cloud that had appeared in her stomach and was festering on her intense, making her feel so horribly vulnerable. 

 

Where did you go when you felt like the entire world was caving in? When you couldn’t take anything else? She couldn’t return to her own dorm, she’d never make it across campus in the cold weather, but nor could she return and apologise. 

 

What she really wanted to do was call Bronwyn, her strong and solid as rock younger sister who always knew what to say. She wanted to cry her heart out on the phone without telling her why and receiving comfort without questions in return, just like she’d done so many times during her first year, when she and Abe was. Of course she knew she’d have to explain herself to her mom later, but first she’d get questionless comfort.

 

Soon, she stack her hand into her pocket, feeling around for the fuzzy pink shell on her phone that two of her other sister, Claire and Olive, had given her for her birthday, but found nothing but a chocolate bar she had meant to eat when she finished her homework. With terror, she realised she forgot it in the dorm, and so she couldn’t even call her sisters.

 

“Emma?” It take her about five seconds to realise that she must have been zoomed out rather long, because Jake is there, standing next to her with a hand on her shoulder. “Are you alright?”

 

“Yes, I...What are you doing with my backpack!?” As soon as she sees the familiar gray bag (Enoch bought it for her in her last year of high school, and she had been tactful enough not to comment the colour of the actually quite expensive bag), she wrench it out of his hands and keep it against her chest protectively. “It’s mine!”

 

“I know!” He’s holding up his hands in defense, want to show he mean no harm. “I packed everything in there, including some of your clothes. Thought you might want to go back to you dorm tonight.”

 

Emma feel herself go cold. Jake didn’t even want her to stay in his dorm anymore, just because she had been uncertain about introducing him to her family.

 

“Are you crazy? Is this whole family thing seriously so important I can't stay with you until i say yes?!” She is yelling, she know, but he’s being unreasonable and somehow she needed an outlet for all the pent up frustration over her sudden vulnerable state, and screaming was perfect for all that.

 

“No! I thought you’d be so mad at me that you didn't want to stay!” Jake yelled back, before stopping himself. Screaming never took them anywhere, and would only serve to further ignite Emma’s flaming temper, so instead, he spoke quietly. “I’m sorry, okay? You can always stay if you want to.” 

 

As soon as he said ‘I'm sorry’, it all felt better to Emma,and she smiled thankfully. Over the course of the last two years, she’d started countless argument with Jake, but in the end it had always been Jake who had apologised, even when it was her fault, because he recognised that even when she wanted to, she could never be the first to admit a mistake. “I’m sorry, too, Jake. I shouldn't have been so sensitive about the family thing.” Quickly, she closed the distance between them and hugged him. “I would love to introduce you sometime.”

 

Jake smiled, hugging Emma back tightly. He had an idea, and right now he was brave enough to suggest it. “Well, your mom wanted you to call her to plan Christmas. Apparently someone called Sharon was asking. Maybe you could tell her I'm coming with you?” He knows he has to tread carefully, because they have only just reconciled, and he doesn’t want her to feel like he’s pressuring her into anything. But the truth was that he really wanted to do this, though, and he wanted Emma to trust him enough to introduce him to her family on Christmas. He had worked so hard to tear down all the walls she built around herself, and this, this would be the top of his work.

 

“Wait, you spoke to mom? Oh bird...and Sharon, why would he be calling already? He never plan in advance...maybe his girlfriend told him… Dear bird it’s only a month away and I haven't planned anything!” Emma didn’t know what to do, now. Jake had spoken to her mom and her mom wanted to talk about Christmas plans and Christmas was only a month away and it was so many things she’d need to fix before that especially if she was going to introduce Jake and she could just feel the pressure and panic hitting her like a hammer in the head. She had never been good at handling stress and right now her stress level was shooting through the roof.

 

Seeing the panic in her eyes and hearing her rambled speech, Jake instinctively pulled his girlfriend closer to him and tried to calm her down. “Sch, it’s going to be alright Emma. There’s still a whole month left. Your mom would have called earlier if she thought there was any rush.” Softly stroking Emma’s hair as he kept her against his chest, Jake couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty. He hadn’t meant to send his girlfriend into a panic, he truly hadn’t, but it wasn’t like he could have gone without telling her about the phone call, and he had needed to give her his suggestion before he chickened out out of fear for her temper. “Why don’t you just call your mom and the two you can start planning, and then you don’t have to feel stressed at all.”

 

Emma looked up at him, feeling much calmer than she had a moment ago. Jake was a great comforter, and she loved the way he delicately stroke her hair, careful as though he was afraid to move a single strand of hair as much as a centimeter to the side. he, she suddenly decided, definitely had to come with her home for Christmas. Sure a month was a little bit short of time to prepare, she would have preferred something more akin to six months, but it would have to do. “Yes, I’m going to do that. I’m going to call mom and arrange everything. A month is quite short of time to prepare you, though, but I guess it’ll have to do. Hope your a quick learner.”

 

Quickly, focused, she detangled herself from her boyfriend’s grip and picked up her bad that she dropped on the ground. It only took a quick search of the outer compartments and she quickly found her phone with the fluffy pink shell, turning on and seeing that she still had over half the battery left. When she went into the activity log, she could see the received call from Miss Peregrine at the top of the list. It was only a little under four minutes and she relaxed seeing that her mom couldn’t have had time to say much more than leaving a message for Emma.

 

When she turned back to Jake after closing her bag and slinging it over her shoulder, she could see that he stood exactly where she left him with an utterly confused expression on his face. She couldn’t help but giggle, hiding her mad grin behind her hand.

 

“I have to learn something?” He asked, surprised and more than a little confused as Emma giggled behind her hand. What could it possibly be that he needed to learn about her family? Names?

 

“Well, yes. So you don’t make mistakes. For example, I am the only one in front of who you can refer to Miss Peregrine as ‘your mother’. Everyone call her Miss Peregrine, always, or possibly Miss P.” She said seriously before picking up the phone and clicking the green call button, putting it to her ear.

 

Jake followed behind her obediently, reentering the dormitory and considering what was going to happen now. 

 

Somehow, he felt like he had no idea what he just signed up for…


End file.
